King’s Church has teamed up with Captivate AV to enhance its worship experience with KLANG’s immersive in-ear mixing system coupled with DiGiCo S-Series consoles. Boasting several key locations across Australia’s Gold Coast, King’s Church encompasses a growing community of connected worshippers that regularly assemble for a variety of services and events. With a vast congregation, including multiple associated school campuses, the church is well-versed in employing high-tech AV solutions to amplify its message.
Endeavouring to offer its followers a technologically progressive in-person and online experience, King’s Church produces its own podcast and web-stream services while delivering potent live worship sessions through song and the spoken word. Recognising seamless audio production as a core component in delivering the impact it wants, the church’s team has enlisted industry expert, Captivate AV, to help optimise its AV capabilities. Chris Lang, Captivate AV’s Managing Director, spearheaded the leap to KLANG IEM technology in a move that has been extraordinarily well-received by King’s Church’s worship leaders, students and Global Worship Director, Ashleigh Rogers.
“Our church incorporates schools, meaning we have very mixed, multipurpose use spaces. From services to musicals, the sound system is used a lot – almost every day of the week for different things,” says Ashleigh as he reflects on the upgrade. “Now, thanks to our DiGiCo and KLANG setup, we experience significantly better time efficiency, and the in-ears have given musicians and singers the confidence to hear exactly what they need – they can simply adjust everything themselves. Having KLANG has massively improved our audio experience and worship quality. I don’t even think it’s comparable to before!”
Effortlessly augmenting the existing worship setups, KLANG offers each performer a personal 3D soundstage, allowing for natural and intuitive monitor mixes with pristine sonic quality. The system also takes advantage of the interrelated KLANG and DiGiCo ecosystems, with DiGiCo’s DMI-KLANG expansion card bringing a generous host of 3D IEM control capabilities to their Quantum and S-Series consoles. Based on ultra-fast FPGA architecture, DMI-KLANG enables the creation of 16 immersive, 3D in-ear mixes of 64 input channels. An extremely powerful counterpart to the ultra-compact S-Series consoles, DMI-KLANG is capable of granting each performer a completely tailored auditory experience.
Lang expands on this synergy as the ideal solution for King’s Church: “We currently have three campuses across the Gold Coast region with DiGiCo S-Series consoles. Before KLANG, one campus was using foldback wedges for the frontline and an older-style personal monitoring system for the backline. The other campuses were doing IEM mixes straight from the console. Once DMI-KLANG was released, we began installing them across the campuses along with additional wireless stereo IEM kits.”
KLANG offers musicians meticulous control over their own IEM mix via the KLANG:app, providing a matchless dimensionality to performance monitoring. Musicians can simply choose where each instrument, playback source, and other performers are positioned around their head, enriching the listening experience with a sense of proximity and directionality. Delighted by the spatial authenticity offered by KLANG, King’s Church Worship Leader and drummer, Callum, describes the way he employs the app and 3D IEM features:
“Using KLANG really helps to position everything that you’re hearing, to give you that very authentic, open ambient noise from the drums. Depending on what drum I’m mixing, I will generally position each part in the app similarly to an overhead position. This creates a very clear, realistic sound for those drums in my in-ears. Having the 3D option creates a realistic environment when playing- and creates this feeling of being in amongst the rest of the instruments and the other band members, whilst still maintaining the clarity of my own instrument in the mix.”
With the power of the KLANG:app, bass player and Music Director, Adrian, makes the most of KLANG’s 3D soundstage, highlighting the ability to easily discern individual instruments as a major advantage over traditional monitoring methods.
“It’s really good being able to hear specific instruments a lot better than before,” he says. “Having the ability to choose a position for each instrument and vocal in the 3D mode is fantastic. It’s great being able to isolate each element, to pinpoint who I need to turn up or down – especially when trying to lead as a Music Director.”
Speaking to the benefits of a 3D soundstage, Worship Leader, Isaiah, highlights an improved connection with the worship congregation as a key point of difference when using KLANG.
“It’s so much easier to hear what is actually going on,” he states. “The sound of all the individual instruments becomes very clear with the 3D capabilities. I’ve been able to distinguish every instrument and my voice, along with the other vocals. It’s much easier to interpret than when using on-stage foldback, so it’s really helped flowing with the team, being able to lead properly, while hearing the Music Director, and also being able to connect with the congregation on a different level! My experience with the 3D in-ears has been incredible. I definitely recommend it.”
Giving rise to a renewed sense of enthusiasm amongst the performers bringing worship to life, the KLANG IEMs, coupled with DiGiCo’s S-Series, has made an undoubtedly positive impact on the King’s Church community. Selected and maintained by Captivate AV, KLANG stands as an ideal component in enriching forward-thinking Houses of Worship, with Ashleigh singing its praises:
“We now wouldn’t live without it and could never go back. It’s been amazing!”
